We grow our own food in a suburban village in the North East of England. Follow us as we keep up the battle to be self-sufficient.

Monday, 9 August 2010

How to pickle gherkins

The summer glut of gherkins is in full flood so I have put together this recipe for a sweet pickling vinegar to pickle gherkins. I went for sweetness as 2 years ago when we last had a successful gherkin crop we pickled them in ordinary pickling vinegar and found the end result disappointingly sharp.

So here's the recipe for sweet pickling vinegar and how to pickle gherkins.

The first job to do is sprinkle salt on the gherkins and leave them to stand for 24 hours. Then rinse them.

Pack pickling jars or large jam jars with whole gherkins. Slice longways those too large to fit in or where whole gherkins won't fit the space left.

Put the vinegar into a pan and begin to heat it. Add and stir in the sugar and then add all the spices and seeds. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 minutes. (Actually, I say this makes one litre but in reality a bit of the liquid is lost to evaporation.)

Let the vinegar cool but when it is still hot pour onto the gherkins, filling each jar to the brim. Seal and leave for about 6 weeks before starting to use.

Pickles gherkins can keep for quite some time. The ones we pickled 2 years ago are still being used by us, even though we were disappointed at how sharp was the taste. The ones we have pickeld this year however are likely to be used up more quickly.

Below: me with 2 of the 8 jars made in the first batch of pickled gherkins.

We'll soon be doing some pickling recipes with chopped gherkins and cucumbers. Watch this space.

8 comments:

How glad I am to have found you. My husband has an allotment and from time to time I am overwhelmed with Harvests of this and that. This time I was looking for how to pickle walleys!!! and there you were pickling what you call gherkins. Perhaps you are not a Londoner!!Now I am off to buy white wine vinegar, I too would prefer them to be sweet so in will go the sugar oh dear! I wonder if dill would help?Bring on the next bag of runner beans, I'm sure you will have a recipee somewhere which will make a change from my 5 veg. sweet piccalilli

Help! We've returned from holiday to find our greenhouse invaded by giant gherkins! They are about 7 or 8 inches long and 3 or 4 inches in diameter, beginning to yellow. Can we still use them? I thought I might possiblt slice them thinly longwise, what do you think?Any helpful comments appreciated!

Have just tried my pickled gherkins and beetroot that I had pickled using your recipe. They are amazing and the beetroot is the best I have tasted. I have just eaten half the jar!!I will be making a large batch of this sweet vinegar and pickling everything in it. Thank you xx

I have used your recipe for pickled gherkins but something went wrong! I live in South Africa and our gherkins (the ones I used at least) are between 10 and 20 cm long and about 1.5 to 2 cm in diameter. I put them in salt for 24 hours and I was concerned about how floppy they were after that but I nevertheless continued, rinsed them well and bottled as per your instructions. This was done about 2 weeks ago and this afternoon I thought to check one of the bottles to see how they are doing. Bad news that they are still floppy and VERY salty! Do I wait another 4 weeks and then check again, or do I have a disaster on hand? Please help - what did I do wrong???

This recipe is fantastic! After the first year I started buying my wine vinegar in 5 litre containers on line and got through 2 of them!I made enough pickle to be easily self sufficient and have enough to give as gifts, all from 2 plants at my allotment. Everyone that has tried this pickle loves it and asks for more!

Suppliers of fruit trees and bushes, and sponsors of Kingsway Community Orchard

a great value supplier of vegetable seeds to UK allotmenteers!

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We live in the village of Sunniside, in Gateshead, Tyneside, North East England. The village is part of the Tyneside commuter belt. In 2007 we took on a derelict allotment. Our aim is to grow as much of our food as we can and to forage from wild sources. We've set up this blog to tell you how we are getting on.

Self-Sufficient in Suburbia Summer 2014

Self-Sufficient in Suburbia June 2014

Self-Sufficient in Suburbia Spring 2014

Self-Sufficient in Suburbia February 2014

Hard graft on the allotment

In 2006 we took over a derelict allotment. We now keep goats, bees, ducks and hens and have plans for other livestock. We grow fruit and vegetables and have built up a trading system with other local food producers.